Sometimes a Great Notion Character Descriptions

Hank Stamper

He lives in a house surrounded by family members, works with his family, socializes with his family, and does everything he does in the name of his family. He is not an altruistic hero; he does not do what he does for the greater good but for the immediate good of himself and his immediate circle.

Leland (Lee) Stamper

He essentially lives his life in his head, in a world of ideas and theories and imaginings. At the core of his existence, beneath even his desire for revenge and his anger at his family, is an intense, desperate loneliness.

Henry Stamper

He exists on the periphery of the action as a catalyst or as comic relief.

Viv Stamper

Having been denied the joy of children, this aspect of her personality can only find expression in her desserts and eventually in a brief, but profoundly catalytic, affair...